This invention relates to a visually symmetric, low protrusion removable system or process for mounting flexible, easily replaceable, tensioned advertising displays on to the side of a vehicle, such as a truck, tractor trailer, or van. This invention also relates to a visually symmetric, low protrusion, removable system or process for mounting flexible easily replaceable, tensioned advertising displays on fixed billboards of various sizes.
There have been developed a number of methods for displaying advertising signage on the side of moving vehicles. Given the increased mobility of the public, and the growing unsatisfied demand for fixed roadside signage, the mobile billboard, achieved by mounting advertising art to the side of a transport vehicle, is becoming ever more common, and ever more practical, given advances in the technology of printing such advertising art, allowing better color quality, as well as much greater pixel resolutions. Taken together, these factors now make mobile, lateral surface of transport vehicle, advertising a higher quality and more sought after mode of commercial publicity than ever before with the development of the science of mobile commercial publicity production, one would expect a corresponding development and sophistication in the technology of mounting said media to their substrate, the lateral sides of transport vehicles. This invention is a new step in said development and sophistication.
There are a number of constraining factors in designing a mobile advertising mounting system, some regulatory, others aesthetic, some physical. Firstly, there exist federal as well as state transportation regulations restricting the width of transport vehicles at an upper limit. Secondly, transport advertising is most often procured by leasing the use of a carrier's fleet for such purpose. The fleet owner is inclined to lease to the advertising broker whose system impacts the least on the fleet's vehicles, in terms of time required for initial setup of the system, turnaround time for installation/replacement of a particular image, and complexity of the permanent hardware attached to the vehicle. Finally, in order to maintain the planar aspect of the sign, which is critical to readability from afar, the current industry practice is to apply tension to the signage. This has been accomplished in a variety of ways, such as the systems described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,239,765, and 5,507,109. The first of these two systems relies on a series of anchors placed along the top and bottom of the lateral sides of the vehicle. A flat rectangular rod has the edges of the signage wrapped around it on the top and bottom edges of the sign, and this wrapping is held by the rows of anchors. The series of anchors method presents obvious difficulties as far as bringing the individual anchors within the top or bottom row into perfect linear alignment, and there are also issues of significant protrusion from the side of the vehicle, using this system, which may violate state and federal regulatory restrictions. Additionally, this system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,765 has no mechanism to prevent the signage material acting as an airfoil, billowing and tending to pull away from the vehicle, or, at the very least, assuming a convex shape, thus distorting the image. This system further has no vertical or lateral adjustibility to account for variation in manufacture of the signage material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,109 solves some of the problems with the system described in the earlier patent, yet it discloses a system that is visually asymmetric as well as possessing a much larger footprint. This implementation also requires a nonuniform as to the various edges method of attaching a structural element to the signage, namely using a rod in a pocket of the sign on the leading and top edges, and holes ringed by grommets on reinforced flaps which must be sewn to the trailing and bottom edges of the sign, thus decreasing the available area of the sign that can be used for displaying the image; bungee cords, referred to therein as "shock cords", are attached to the grommets, or eyelets, as therein referred to, and the shock cords are attached to the truck wall by means of S hooks connected to either flanges which the patent claims "run along the bottom and top edges of the sides of most trailers", or if they are not present, then it is suggested that other structures, such as holes drilled in the sides of the trailer, may suffice. However, many truck and trailer owners would vehemently object to holes large enough to accommodate said S hooks being drilled in their vehicle sides. This system anchors the leading and top edges of the sign by what appears to be a standard awning anchor, and tensions the bottom and trailing edge of the signage by said bungee cords and S hook fastening process. The tension along the vertical axis of the sign is thus not uniform along said vertical axis, and may tend to create wavelike ripples in the signage; additionally, being non-rigid, the S hooks will tend to have a time varying tension component perpendicular to the sign, ultimately being a complex function of the terrain along which the vehicle travels, the natural frequencies and other vibratory properties of the vehicle siding and other internal vehicular components, and the ambient air, thus creating localized hills and valleys in the surface of the sign, distorting the image, and diminishing readability. It is not discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,109 exactly how the leading edge and top edge tracks are in fact affixed to the trailer siding, nor is it disclosed whether the affixing mechanism is a permanent fixture of the trailer, or how much it impacts the trailer siding in terms of creating moisture pathways or how many fasteners per unit length are required to adequately affix the said tracks. Additionally, the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,109 requires attaching additional reinforced strips of sign material to the signage, where such additional reinforced strips contain the eyelets through which the trailing edge shock cord is threaded. The requirement of the eyelets as the means for attaching the sign to the substrate thus reduces the area of the signage available for the printed display or artwork. Finally, the system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,109 requires a fixed rod to hold the signage; the rod is inserted in a pocket in the signage material. This requires additional insertion time at the installation site, which can be substantial, or if pre inserted, it precludes rolling up the signage for storage and transport, inasmuch as a vertical and a horizontal fixed rod force the signage into a plane.
A further problem with the shock cord method is functional, the rubber from which shock cords are made changes over time with exposure to the elements, especially heat and UV radiation from sunlight, which is increasing yearly. The UV exposure causes cracking, loss of elasticity, and ultimately breakage, of the rubber shock cords. This reduces the tensions that they can be put under, thus decreasing their efficacy for the modem low stretch vinyl signage, which needs to be placed under tension so as to maintain a planar quality on a moving vehicle.
What is desired is a visually symmetric, simpler, durable, comprised of a small number of parts, and specially engineered to impact the truck or trailer at a minimum in terms of fasteners per foot required to the truck or trailer siding, as well as insulating the truck or trailer interior form moisture, system of attaching signage to a transport vehicle. Such a system should keep the signage material as planar as possible, and not introduce a vacuum or partial vacuum underneath it, or cause air pockets to form underneath it either, at any point along the sign. Such a system would have its framing removable, and insure protrusion from the lateral surface of the vehicle low enough to comply with all regulatory maximum vehicle width specifications. Once the framing is removed the visible residue should be at an absolute minimum, and the framing should be capable of replacement and removal at will, and in a short, less than half-hour, time frame. The system would also allow for insertion of the line by which the edges of the sign are anchored to the substrate to be flexible, allowing for pre-insertion at the time of manufacture, and easy transportation.